The difference between tubes themselves is not that profound. They are just tubes and they have very similar linearity and bandwidth.
This is not true of output transformers! Here's the problem- the more power there is, the harder it is to get bandwidth out of the transformer (and in this regard, much moreso than is encountered with push-pull; we sidestepped the whole thing by eliminating the transformer altogether).
So as the output power goes down, the sound of the amp improves. 25 years ago the 211 was king, 20 years ago the 300b was king, by sometime in the early 2000s the 2A3 was king, now we're seeing the type 45, 10 and 71 vying for the title. A traditional 45 is good for about 0.75 watts.
Now as transformer designs have improved (some taking advantage of technology not available in the 1920s and 1930s) its been possible to extend bandwidth in higher power designs. So the result is you're going to get a lot of conflicting anecdotal comments.
The other issue I've not mentioned is how well the tube and the output transformer work together. Some tubes want a 5K load and some output transformers present 4.9K or 5.1 K instead of exactly 5K (which will vary from tube to tube...) so you're going to see variance on that account as well.
So don't expect consistency in the comments to follow.
This is not true of output transformers! Here's the problem- the more power there is, the harder it is to get bandwidth out of the transformer (and in this regard, much moreso than is encountered with push-pull; we sidestepped the whole thing by eliminating the transformer altogether).
So as the output power goes down, the sound of the amp improves. 25 years ago the 211 was king, 20 years ago the 300b was king, by sometime in the early 2000s the 2A3 was king, now we're seeing the type 45, 10 and 71 vying for the title. A traditional 45 is good for about 0.75 watts.
Now as transformer designs have improved (some taking advantage of technology not available in the 1920s and 1930s) its been possible to extend bandwidth in higher power designs. So the result is you're going to get a lot of conflicting anecdotal comments.
The other issue I've not mentioned is how well the tube and the output transformer work together. Some tubes want a 5K load and some output transformers present 4.9K or 5.1 K instead of exactly 5K (which will vary from tube to tube...) so you're going to see variance on that account as well.
So don't expect consistency in the comments to follow.